Lehi and his sons; Mosiah and his sons; Alma and Alma the
Younger; Mormon and Moroni. The Book of
Mormon is actually nothing more than a rich, engaging story of fathers teaching
their sons the gospel of Jesus Christ that spans several centuries. Every father had a son that had
either rejected the good news of the atonement or would be facing life in a
world drenched in sin and evil (Moroni). In either case, these wise fathers
participated in the pattern of how God works- He takes bad things and turns
them into good, while the adversary takes good things and turns them into bad.
In modern times, the organization and culture of the LDS
church provides well-meaning fathers with multiple opportunities to share the
gospel with their sons through milestones and rites of passage, which are
almost inevitably tied to certain ages. When
I baptized my son, confirmed him a member of the church, and blessed him to
receive the Holy Ghost when he turned 8, we discussed the basics of the plan of
salvation and he passed into a life of accountability. When he turned 12 years old and I ordained
him to the office of a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood, we had more precious
father-and-son moments as I taught him his duties and responsibilities, and he
passed into a life of service to others. We strengthened the patriarchal bond
spending time together home teaching and collecting fast offerings.
When he turned 18 I ordained him an elder, and at 19 we sent
him off on a mission. These rites of
passage included direct and honest talks about standards, morals, beliefs, and
testimonies. I was both relieved and inspired when he told the congregation in
his home ward just before leaving that he had decided to serve a mission not
because his parents told him to (although we did), but because he knew in his
heart it was the right thing to do- or something like that. He left as an anxious teenager and returned
to us a man of faith and conviction.
After returning to BYU-Idaho to prepare to assume the full
mantle of adulthood as a husband, father, and breadwinner, he met the wife of
his eternities, and at age 24 he was sealed to her in the Salt Lake Temple.
This final rite of passage afforded me another opportunity to instruct my son
on the blessings and landmines of love and married life.
However, circumstances and the political climate in the
People’s Republic of America created another rite of passage- at age 26, he was
forced to sign up for semi-socialized medical
insurance via the Obamacare marketplace.
Although we raised him on principles of providing care to the poor and
the needy through his own free will and choice, we also taught him to honor and
obey the law, and the law demanded that he acquire medical insurance or face a
fine at tax time. According to the
divine pattern of turning bad things into good, we held several in-depth
discussions on how insurance works, and motivations for maintaining a healthy
lifestyle, and I dispensed decision making advice on choosing the right plan
for his stage of life. God had
transformed the distasteful task of signing up for subsidized healthcare into
the productive and memorable process of engaging my adult son on critical
family and financial issues.
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